STAFF

Charlie HartChief Executive Officer

Mr. Hart is the Chief Executive Officer and a member of the Board of Directors of Call of the Sea. Prior to this position he served as the Chairman, President and CEO of MediaAlive, Inc. and CEO of Micronics Computers, Inc., a publicly held, international high technology company in Silicon Valley. He is on the Board of Advisors of Brookside Capital of San Francisco and President of the San Francisco Maritime National Park Association. Also, Mr. Hart was named to the Micro Times 50, a roster of the “fifty most influential people in the computer industry.” His community involvement has included: President and member of the Board of Directors of the HealthStore Foundation, a non-profit medical services organization serving Africa, Chairman of the Board of the San Jose Symphony, CEO of the Ballet San Jose, president and co-founder of the Association for Corporate Growth (ACG) of Silicon Valley, and was elected as the Commodore of the St. Francis Yacht Club in San Francisco and an Honorary Member of the Marin Yacht Club. As an officer in the United States Air Force, he served as a Squadron Commander. Mr. Hart earned his bachelor’s degree at the University of Maryland and Stanford University’s AEA Executive Institute in the Graduate School of Industrial Engineering.

Alan OlsonProject Director

Alan brings over 50 years of maritime experience in boat construction, engineering, restoration and sailing, to his vision of building a historic educational tall ship for San Francisco Bay. With this passion, he founded the non-profit organization Call of the Sea in 1985 to provide hands-on, educational experiences for youth and adults aboard traditional sailing vessels. In 2005, Call of the Sea merged with another local group, led by Ken Neal, with a similar mission. The newly merged organization purchased Seaward, an 82 foot schooner to operate year round sailing programs in the Bay, and educational expeditions along the California and Mexican coasts. As of 2017, over 60,000 youth and adult students have sailed on day and overnight educational programs.

Alan’s maritime career began in 1962 when he built a 40ft catamaran in Minneapolis and sailed down the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean. Along the way, he worked in boat yards and was lead carpenter on the construction of an 85ft catamaran. In 1971, he began construction of the 70ft brigantine, Stone Witch. After its completion in 1977, Alan sailed Stone Witch over 40,000 miles, operating educational sailing programs for youth and adults, along with public charters, on San Francisco Bay, Mexico and the Pacific Islands. Stone Witch was the flagship for Greenpeace and was involved in environmental missions along the California Coast. In the 1980’s, Alan restored the 54ft wooden staysail schooner Maramel which was used in youth educational programs for Call of the Sea and made several educational expeditions with adults including seven trips to Mexico, and a 15,000-mile, 12 month Pacific Rim voyage.

Alan took a five year sabbatical from sailing at a Northern California Buddhist monastery (Odiyan). His experience there, living and working with an all volunteer crew tasked with building complex monumental art and temples, helped prepare him for building Matthew Turner.

Matt GrigorieffDevelopment Director

Matt Grigorieff received his undergraduate and graduate degrees from UC Berkeley where he advocated, researched, and fundraised for educational health programs to serve at-risk populations. Most notably, he founded the Athletics-For-All project that inspired the Cal Goalball Team that was the first college team in the United States to include visually impaired student athletes.

Dax Ovid, Ph.D.Program Director

Dax studied Integrative Biology at U.C. Berkeley, focusing her research on seasonality in mammals and birds. For over 5 years, Dax has co-designed and taught an undergraduate course on the public engagement with science. As a part of the course, students have conducted experiments with social media, hosted conferences, and successfully applied for grants to self-publish a book. Dax is committed to inclusive science education. If you are interested in contributing to the educational programming at Call of the Sea, we would love to hear from you. Please reach out to dax@callofthesea.org.

Sylvia Stewart StompeAdministrative Assistant to Project Director

Sylvia has been sailing since childhood, but took to sailing full time in her late 20’s with a position as cook and deckhand aboard an Ocean 71 ketch, for a year in the Caribbean and eastern Seaboard.

Since then her careers have ranged from chef, to jewelry designer and owner of a bridal salon, but her passion for sailing has remained constant. From 2014-2016 she took a two year sabbatical to cruise the eastern Pacific aboard the classic yawl she owns with her husband, visiting Mexico, French Polynesia, Hawaii and British Columbia. Upon her return to Marin County, she started working at Call of the Sea, assisting Alan Olson, coordinating special events and handling community relations. Racing and cruising her sailboat in the San Francisco Bay are her favorite pastimes.